A Taste of Love
by SingOff-Key
Summary: They were stepping closer to one another with each breath they took. Their chests were touching and their fingers were intertwining to the sides of their bodies. They were breathing in each other's scent, wanting for more. To taste, to feel, to explore. Series Part 1 of Maddy & Archer Their Story Continued


He came to her that night. After they had talked on the darkened porch about the loss of his parents and his days in the army.

He had opened up to her like to any other person before, himself included. He had spilled his mind and laid the broken pieces of his soul right in front of her to see them. He'd thought she would run away in that moment, when he was voicing thoughts he hadn't even realized he had kept squished in the back of his mind for twenty something years. Although, most probably, _he_ was the one wanting to run away because his hand instinctively moved over his forehead to cover his stinging eyes.

Both their hearts skipped a beat when she reached forward and took his large, rough hand in her small, soft one, caressing the back of his palm gently. He looked up and she stared back, her green eyes glistening over compassionately. After the initial feeling of surprise wore off, he returned her touch.

"It's late, you should go to bed." he spoke up quietly, letting go of her hand slowly and squeezing it lightly as he did.

Maddy hopped off the ledge and stretched her aching body, yawning. Archer chuckled and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth self-consciously.

"I'm exhausted." she moaned, her voice stifled by another yawn.

"Then, you should sleep."

Archer got up as well, taking his canteen, which they'd been drinking palm wine from earlier that night, with him.

"Aren't you sleeping?" she questioned.

He turned to look at her as if she'd distracted him from his thoughts.

"Ja, ja." he replied, after a few seconds. "In a little while."

"Okay." She knew something was on his mind, but couldn't quite place her finger on it. "Goodnight, then." she said simply.

"Goodnight, Maddy."

And here he was now standing outside of the room Benjamin gave her down the corridor, just across from the one Archer shared with Solomon. He stood there for several minutes, debating with himself whether or not it was a good idea to knock on her door. Just as he was turning around to leave, he nearly bumped into Maddy.

At first, she had thought she was being mistaken, seeing him from behind in the dimly-lit hallway. What would Archer be doing outside of her room in the middle of the night anyway? Most likely, it was just the shadows with the occasional glimmers of moonshine playing games on her tired mind. But, no, the more she observed the sturdy, darkened figure, the more it resembled Archer. When he turned around, a stray ray of light illuminating his face from the side, she was sure it was definitely him.

He mustn't have noticed her because he all but tripped over her. And she had been too absorbed in secretly admiring his handsome looks to have been able to move out of his way in time. Fearing he was going to snap at her and she was gonna have to explain herself, Maddy was the first to speak.

"I couldn't sleep, so I went out looking for you, but I couldn't find you anywhere. I assumed you were asleep and was returning to my room the moment you started to go." she said. Then, looking over her shoulder, she asked: "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong." he reassured her, vaguely waving his hand into the air. "I was just checking on you, huh?" He cracked a smirk.

Maddy smiled knowingly at that. "You couldn't sleep either, could you?" she said sweetly, motherly almost.

"No." he admitted. "I was... uh..." - he scratched the back of his head- "...thinking."

"About...?" she questioned.

_You_, he answered immediately in his head. _Us._ He shrugged. "Nothing in particular. Just thinking, huh?"

"Wanna let me in on those thoughts?" she asked neutrally, but her voice held a silent longing.

"I don't think I have much left to let you in on." he gave her an honest reply, his voice low and sad.

They were stepping closer to one another with each breath they took. Their chests were touching and their fingers were intertwining to the sides of their bodies. They were breathing in each other's scent, wanting for more. To taste, to feel, to explore.

"Have you ever loved?" she asked him, her lips on his chest, his lips on her forehead.

"I don't have a heart to love." he said simply. He was being a total and complete denial again, only this time his lips brushed the bridge of her nose and hovered over her mouth as he spoke.

"Perhaps you do..." she countered with confidence. "...but, it's cold and numb, hollow and empty." She had to snuggle further into his chest to keep herself from moaning as Archer began kissing a path down her neck. "You need to warm it up, fill it, make it whole again." Her hands moved slowly to trace every muscle and some bullet wounds covered by the paper-thin material of his t-shirt. Oh, she wanted to take it off so badly!

He somehow must have read her mind and apparently wanted to do the same with her own t-shirt because he rolled it up and made to pull it over her head.

"Archer!" she hissed, and he stared at her in confusion. "Not here!" she scolded him, and he opened the door to her room, guiding them inside, before shutting it behind them.

He was gone when she woke up in the morning. She opened her eyes to find his spot beside her on the straw pallet empty and cold. Her clothes were scattered on the earthen floor, his were missing.

In her dazed, current state, it took a few moments for her to piece it all together. Her nakedness and his scent on the linens. The dull aching of her body and the whirlwind of her emotions.

She sat up straight in bed, taking the sheet with her. God, what had they done last night?

They didn't talk about it. But their eyes said all that needed to be said between them.

_"In another life maybe, a'right?" he chuckled, putting his backpack on his shoulders, while they were saying their goodbyes at the company base._

_She looked up at him, smiling. "Yeah. Sure."_

And if it's true what they say that our eyes are the mirror of our hearts, then what he really meant was that he loved her.


End file.
